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On Reader Mail: Set Design

"I'm
attempting to key a modified version of the B1 module for an ACKS game
I'll be running in a week and a bit, and I'm trying to use the method
you describe in your two 'Set Design' blog posts.

I wanted, if
you're amenable, to run the first room by you to see if I'm on roughly
the right track, or if you had any recommendations for improvements.

Entrance
| 6 Statues -> Saints (Muses, Knowledge throw to ID),
Broken and vandalised -> Holding Writing Tablet (Calliope, Epic
Poetry), Lyre (Terpsichore, Dance), Cithera (Erato, Love Poetry), Aulos
(Euterpe, Song & Elegiac poetry), Comic mask (Thalia, Comedy),
Tragic mask (Melpomene, Tragedy). Columns -> Ornate, damaged. Tiled Mosaic Floor -> Broken, Coloured Geometric pattern Steps up -> into corridor -> triggers magic mouth 5
Bodies -> 2 Human Bandits, 3 Human ‘adventurers’ (1 Fighter, 1
Cleric (Sol), 1 Thief?) -> Thief -> mucky red bandana, Cleric -> broken Sol symbol, Fighter -> ruined leather, bandits ->
ratty wolfskin cloaks.1.
The alcoves contain statues, all of them broken. Anyone with knowledge
of the old world can identify them as minor pleasure goddesses. The
floor is tiled in a coloured geometric pattern. Many tiles are broken or
missing, but clearly it was once very elaborate.The magic
mouth described here does not actually appear anywhere but a disembodied
voice speaks as the first person climbs the short stair to the open
arch at the north end of the hall. Rather than the text from the book,
it says in a jovial voice, “Welcome guests! Seek your pleasures within!”
It won't speak again unless someone passes again through the front
entrance doors.The grisly sight remains beyond the arch, with
the addition of a broken statue. This statue is a stone angel, broken in
two at the torso. The berserker wears a ratty wolfskin.But that misses out some of the details from the original module, like the bodies.Any advice? Suggestions? Critique?"

Hi Stuart and thanks for writing in. I'm really glad you sent me this. It lets me talk more about the theory and practice behind the set design.

For those that are unaware, the point behind my method of set design is to allow you to quickly reference what you need in order to pay attention to the table and the players in the game. Reading the text is great for prep, but when playing, all you need are the easily locatable prompts. For example, compare:

"
The alcoves contain statues, all of them broken. Anyone with knowledge
of the old world can identify them as minor pleasure goddesses. The
floor is tiled in a coloured geometric pattern. Many tiles are broken or
missing, but clearly it was once very elaborate."

They are basically the same thing, but the written paragraph format means you need to stop and read, parse the information and then respond to player queries. Using keywords speeds up the process and helps combat the "I just read what kind of statues those were, where is it in the text".

The format of set design digitally is immediately visible things are in bold, Monster Names are underlined, with stats in italics. When I'm actually working with paper, so I'm rarely doing second drafts. I'll rewrite a module once, but doing it twice is a bit more work than something I want to do for my home table. I'd rather focus on creating more content. On paper, immediately visible things are thicker lines, monster names are underlined and stats are in parenthesis.

What I'm actually doing when I'm keying a room this way is thinking of how the players are walking into the room. What can they immediately see? What is going on nearby? What is most obvious? What must I mention at a bare minimum to maintain their agency?

I understand that a lot of formatting got lost in the translation to me. I have rekeyed the adventure as I would run it below. I would do everything possible to eliminate any need for text blocks.

The first indicates that the statues are immediately visible, the second indicates that they are very damaged.

I reorganized the order, because the human eye will be drawn to the columns first (because they are long narrow shapes at eye level) and the bodies second (because we are biologically engineered to seek out human forms, shapes, and patterns in visual stimuli first). The floor and stairway would be noticed after and later.

What isn't noted above, is that I will describe the room that the characters enter based on the information garnered from the map. E.g. "You walk through the door and see a (small|average|large|huge) (room|chamber|closet|hallway) with ornate columns running (at column locations). Bodies lay strewn around the room on the tiled floor. You can see alcoves in the dim light and a stairway that rises on the (N|E|S|W) wall. There is an exit(s) on the (N|E|S|W) wall."

5 comments:

I did not pay this post much heed at the time, but reading it now in light of what I've been working on myself, it is immensely helpful. I think I'll be incorporating this into my own methodology in the near future.

These articles are a breath of fresh air. I've been working on a form of 'markdown' language to make publishing your 'set format' a little easier. Please take a look at my sample on my dropbox.... https://www.dropbox.com/s/ulkuk49o5640u3l/B1-sample.pdf?dl=0I've exposed the text for the Lounge described on page 2.For the computer savvy, the language is parsed into a json object and shipped off to the interested consumer. I'm sending out Adobe Indesign XML, but this could easily be added to a web page (I wrote all this in node.js).I'd love your critique...Steve MuchowMyth Merchant Press (rpgnow).